Varied business interests keep Inmon young

Instead, she works 35 hours a week at her store, Inmon Interiors Ltd., 2321 S. Campbell. She also owns commercial and residential property in the area and co-owns a business in Branson West.

Widowed 10 years, Inmon said she’s perfectly happy with what she’s doing and looks forward to going to work each day.

“I’m healthy and I’m interested,” she said. “It’s my life. I think it keeps you young. It keeps your brain active and you’re not sitting in a retirement home with a television. Walking back and forth to three meals a day is not my idea of living.”

Inmon Interiors evolved from part-time work. Betty Inmon was employed in the home furnishings and yard goods departments at Levy-Wolf, a department store once located on the southeast side of the square in Springfield.

She and her husband, Ray Inmon, installed draperies in the evenings and on Saturdays for Levy-Wolf and several other downtown Springfield stores – Plimmer’s, Sedgwick Furniture and Strauss Drapery.

The Inmons partnered with interior designer Bob King to open their own store in 1959.

“We were Inmon-King and we were over McCurdy’s Paint at Sunshine and Kentwood. That second story was put on that building for us,” she said of the space at 1700 E. Sunshine now occupied by Mid-American Title Loans LLC.

The partnership dissolved around 1970, and King, now deceased, moved his store to the Plaza Shopping Center at the corner of East Sunshine and South Glenstone.

Meanwhile, Ray Inmon ran the upholstery shop while Betty Inmon ran the retail end of the store, which soon moved from East Sunshine to South Campbell, making the Inmons owners of commercial real estate.

“I raised my boys here on this property and then in 1972 we built Camelot Center” on the 15 acres where her home once stood, she said.

“There weren’t a lot of strip centers in Springfield. Campbell was a little narrow street with maple trees up and down it. Sunshine was the last outpost. Where Battlefield Mall is was just a bunch of trees. That was a farm. I’ve seen it develop into what it is today.

“My youngest son graduated from high school and we started the center in May as soon as he graduated,” she said.

That son, Rick Inmon, is now his mother’s business partner. Two years ago, theyopened Branson West Ace Hardware at 16981 State Highway 13 in Branson West. Rick Inmon manages four full-time and two part-time employees at the store, and rents the building from Betty Inmon.

The two also are partners in Nixa Warehouse LLC, a 40,000-square-foot industrial park at 825 N. Kenneth in Nixa. The property housed Rick Inmon’s previous business, lamp manufacturer Inmon Enterprises, for 20 years.

His parents’ business sense has influenced Rick Inmon.

“They pretty much taught me all the facets of how to do it and what it takes to do it. They knew marketing, they knew bookkeeping, taxes, the sales technique, all four areas you’ve got to be good at to start from nothing,” he said.

Betty Inmon has two other sons. Ron Plymate owns Orleans Trail Marina on Stockton Lake and David Inmon is an attorney in Springfield.

Inmon Interiors has four full-time employees.

“The furniture business has changed. There was a time when I had seven (workers) in my drapery workroom,” Betty Inmon said, adding that she now has one part-time worker sewing draperies.

“Back then everybody had picture windows. Now they don’t have anything on their windows or they have wood shades or metal shades.”

Today, Inmon Interiors sells furniture and provides interior design services for both residential and commercial clients.

Betty Inmon also owns 10 rental houses in Nixa, which she’s managed herself for 15 years.

“You can’t make any money on rentals and they deteriorate if you turn them over to a rental agency, so I handle my residential rentals,” she said, adding that her commercial property is managed by Todd Chambers of Chambers Real Estate Services LLC.

Chambers has been managing Inmon’s commercial properties for 10 years. Camelot Center, he said, rarely has vacancies.

“We’ve had good success there and part of it is that we’ve got a desirable bay size, either 1,200 or 1,330 square feet,” Chambers said. “That’s part of it as well as Betty’s just a very good person. Once they’re there, if their businesses do well, they usually stay.”

The Flower Merchant Ltd. has been a part of Camelot Center for 20 years, according to Lynn Owens, co-owner of The Flower Merchant Ltd.

“I just feel like I was born here,” Owens said of the 3,800 square feet he and business partner Pat Phillips lease.

Owens said he can’t imagine Camelot Center without Betty Inmon.

“She would be bored to death. She’s not a retiring type person,” he said.

Asked which of her business endeavors is the most profitable, Inmon said, “I don’t know. It just all goes in the pot.”

Camelot Center businesses

2259 S. Campell – DiGiaCinto Italian Restaurant

2303 S. Campbell – The Flower Merchant Ltd.

2305 S. Campbell – 9 Months to Grow Maternity Fashions

2307 S. Campbell – Mr. E’s Magic

2309 S. Campbell – Canada Direct Drugs

2311 S. Campbell – Ultimate Impresh’ns (hair salon)

2315 S. Campbell – Sewing Machine Express

2317 S. Campbell – Ron Anderson Insurance Agency

2319 S. Campbell – Camelot Chiropractic Care

2321 S. Campbell – Inmon Interiors Ltd.

Inmon Interiors Ltd.

Address: 2321 S. Campbell Ave., Springfield, MO 65807

Phone: (417) 881-4422

Founded: 1959

Owner: Betty F. Inmon[[In-content Ad]]